Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold launches with foldable screen and liquid lens camera

Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold
(Image credit: Xiaomi)

Following on from the launch of Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra and Xiaomi Mi 11 Lite just a day earlier, the company is back with another announcement – Xiaomi’s first foldable phone.

Dubbed the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold, this has an 8.01-inch 1860 x 2480 foldable OLED screen, with support for HDR10+ and Dolby Vision, and a standard brightness of 600 nits, topping out at 900 nits.

The screen is tested to withstand being folded at least 200,000 times, and when it’s folded shut you can instead make use of a 6.52-inch 840 x 2520 outer panel with a 90Hz refresh rate, and a typical brightness of 650 nits. This one also supports HDR10+ and Dolby Vision.

Looks like a human

While this is Xiaomi’s first foldable phone, it’s also the first phone from any company to use a liquid lens camera. This was teased ahead of launch, and it works in a similar way to a human eye – changing shape to adjust its focus.

It’s paired with an 8MP sensor and supports 3x optical zoom and up to 30x hybrid zoom, as well as being able to take macro snaps from distances of just 3cm. This camera is joined by a more conventional 108MP main one and a 13MP ultra-wide sensor.

The Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold isn’t short on power, either, as it uses the Snapdragon 888 chipset found in most of 2021’s flagships, along with up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

The battery, meanwhile, is a 5,020mAh one with 67W fast charging, but no wireless charging, and there’s a quad-speaker setup – which is two more than you’ll find on any other phone – plus a cooling system so the device won’t be in danger of overheating.

The standard version of the Mi Mix Fold has a glass back, but with a ceramic texture, while there’s also a special edition that actually has a ceramic back.

If you like the sound of it, though, you might be out of luck, as availability has so far only been confirmed for China. It goes up for pre-order there today (March 30), with prices starting at 9,999 yuan (around $1,520 / £1,100 / AU$2,000), a figure that increases with more RAM and storage, or for the ceramic version. The phone ships on April 16.

It’s unclear whether the Xiaomi Mi Mix Fold will make it beyond China, but even if it does, you probably won’t be able to buy it in the US, as Xiaomi doesn’t sell its phones there. The UK and Australia are possibilities, though.

Via GSMArena

James Rogerson

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.